Warren Beatty's short film "Warren Tell Us: Why Yurt Tapping?" is an exploration of why the actor feels yurts should be furnished with indoor plumbing. Many people have pointed out that yurts are, in fact, portable tent-like structures and fitting them with indoor plumbing makes little or no sense.
Some have speculated that he was referring to yurts in America. Most American yurts are built with no intention of ever moving the yurt, so plumbing could make sense in those cases. However, even this is difficult to reason through, since local building codes and yurt-owner wishes would really govern whether or not these yurts are furnished with indoor plumbing.
The consensus is that Warren Beatty was searching for an issue that he could champion - like Richard Gere being (for better or worse) the celebrity face of Buddhism, Warren Beatty would be (for better or worse) the celebrity face of the yurt plumbing/tapping movement.
Apparently for fear of appearing wishy-washy with his pet causes, Warren has stood by his call for yurt tapping. His multi-trillion dollar proposal would provide for a vast network of potable water and sewer lines all across Central Asia. The idea is that wherever you put your yurt down, you can enjoy drinking water and sanitary sewers. The proposal does include a means of billing the yurt owners for their use of the resources.
This is really where the controversy heats up. Critics say that it is completely unfeasible to build such a thing and that Beatty's timelines - some 250 years until all phases of the project are complete - raise serious questions about its viability and his stake in the project, since he will probably be dead by the time it is completed.
The financing plan is characterized as "risky" and "complicated." While many investment banks would eagerly underwrite a $12 trillion bond offering, most have said they would probably pass on this, citing grave concerns about how the debt service would be covered. Many have wondered if the projections - which call for yurt owners for pay monthly bills ranging from $12,000 to $40,000 - are unrealistic. They also have doubts about their ability to sell $12 trillion worth of bonds from an agency whose only mission is to build a water and sewer system across all of Central Asia.
Environmentalists cite a disregard for the kind of damage that such a project would do to the habitat of native animals.
This is not the first time a "Warren Tell Us" film has come under scrutiny. His early films in the series, such as "Warren Tell Us: Why the Moon Landing Was Fake" and "Warren Tell Us: All About the Illuminati", featured haphazardly constructed conspiracy theories to explain trivial pet peeves of his, like traffic jams and bruised bananas. They failed to gain much of an following, but were widely criticized for taking short cuts in production. His series on nutrition, with titles like "Warren Tell Us: Why is Candy Good For You?", were also criticized for having little or no scientific basis. Apparently responding to the criticism, later "Warren Tell Us" films featured Warren wearing a lab coat, calling himself "Dr. Warren Beatty, Scientist."
